1. Technical Field
The invention relates to interactive displays. More particularly, the invention relates to multi-user displays suitable for displaying geographical imagery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many situations in which one or more individuals interactively explore image based data. For example, a team of paleontologists may wish to discuss an excavation plan for a remote site dig. To do so, they wish to explore in detail the geographic characteristics of the site as represented on digitized maps. In most laboratories, this requires the team either to huddle around a single workstation and view maps and images on a small display, or sit at separate workstations and converse by phone.
The activity of exploring imagery is much more easily and effectively accomplished with the users surrounding a single large display. While such displays do exist, the interface to the display is typically still operated by a single user. For example, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Geographic Modeling Systems Laboratory have developed an interactive display for museum exhibits in which imagery is displayed on a large horizontal projection surface (http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/RWConsort_UIUC/index.html). A nearby touch screen control console allows visitors to move through and investigate 3-D graphical representations” of the exhibited geographic region. However, as the adjacent touch screen console must still be operated by a single user, the ability of the team as a whole to interact meaningfully with the display is limited.
Moreover, the interfaces to most displays are not particularly intuitive. While the NCSA system does provide a convenient touch screen interface, it is disjoint from the display itself, distancing the controlling user from the display and lessening any sense of immersion within the imagery. Other displays do not offer even this level of convenience, requiring users to manipulate the imagery through the use of keyboards and pointing devices such as mice.
It would be advantageous to provide a collaborative display with which several users can meaningfully discuss and interact with imagery as a group. It would also be advantageous if such a display allowed the users to control the imagery and underlying information through direct interaction with the display itself, using a set of natural gestures. It would be further advantageous to provide a display that is useful for individuals exploring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, such as scientists and military planners.